


Deprivation

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: Canon Era, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 20:49:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17210696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: David is getting ready to go back to school, and both he and Jack are decidedly out of sorts.





	Deprivation

“Not sleeping one of the great rules of exam taking?” Jack asked the boy sitting across from him on his bunk. David’s eyelids were heavy and drooping, but his ankles touched Jack’s, all easy and familiar.

David didn’t answer right away. He pursed his lips and finished the page he was reading in his book. When he did speak, he did so in a heavy, decided growl. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s it. There are ‘great rules’. We aren’t allowed to sleep. That’s what I’m going back to. Idiots and sleepless nights.”

Jack tapped his foot against David’s, but it didn’t get so much as a smile out of his friend. He was going back. The students at his school all wore matching grey uniforms. Jack had seen them rushing out the doors of the school building at three o'clock each day, a loud and smiling herd of boys who might as well be a different species than Jack and the other newsies.

“If you wanna take a nap or something, I won’t tell nobody. They won’t find out. What’s the point of pretending to be a newsie if you can’t get away with nothin’?”

“Pretending?” David repeated, making a face as though the word tasted bad in his mouth. “I sold fifty papes today. How’s that pretending?”

“Well, you and Les did. I reckon Les sold most of ‘em,” Jack muttered without looking at David.

“But I wasn’t pretending. You of all people ought to know what pretending is. You do enough of it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Think about it, Jack.” David flipped a couple more pages in his book, more like he was trying to get away from them than trying to read them. Jack made himself look at David, the sweat stains on his shirt and the dark circles under his eyes.

“You do the thinking,” Jack said, because he wasn’t enough person to look at David’s tired features and let up. “You’re the student.”

“I will if you be quiet.”

“Says the guy who’s taking up half my bed when he has a nice house to go to.”

David scowled, “Fine,” he said. “I’ll go there.”

He left without saying goodbye.

——

Later that night Jack found that he couldn’t sleep. He figured David was awake too, annoying Les and Sarah by keeping the desk lamp burning all night, and muttering equations under his breath. Jack pushed himself off the bed, and went outside for a smoke. Blink and Mush were outside too, or maybe they were just in their way in from whatever it was they liked to do in the middle of the night. Jack offered them each a cigarette. He had human decency, after all. Blink accepted, and Mush said that he’d just share Blink’s if he wanted any.

“So, Dave ain’t allowed to sleep till his exams are over?” Blink said, guessing right away who Jack was thinking of.

“Dave’s dead to me,” Jack said. He took a drag of his cigarette. His other hand was jammed in his pocket.   
“That ain’t nice,” Mush pointed out. Mush was one of those people who assumed everybody was trying to be nice all the time, and just needed a gentle remainder whenever they started to stray from that goal. Jack rolled his eyes.

“It’s not a matter of mean or nice, Mush,” Jack explained. “Just an observation. You know what happens when a guy ain’t allowed to sleep? Try it for three or four days, and you’ll be seeing things that ain’t there for a week.”

Mush frowned. “I don’t know that Dave meant it literal,” he said.

Blink was frowning too, but he was looking at him like he was wondering who had made Jack stay awake for four days straight, and what kind of things Jack had seen. Blink was one for hearing a couple of throw away words and suddenly knowing too much.

“Forget it,” Jack said. “I’m gonna take a walk. Get some air.”

“You want company?” Blink offered. If he’d been alone, Jack might have taken him up on it. As things were, Jack shook his head, adjusted his hat, and went off on his own.


End file.
